Blog

It is has been said (and written) that all publicity is good publicity. Not true.

If you don’t agree, then just ask the next time you have the opportunity to talk with a disgraced political leader forced to resign for tweeting lewd pictures of himself. Or the football coaching staff members at Penn State University, or senior officials at Susan G. Komen, and so on and so on. You get the point.

In a similar vein, is it a good idea to accept an invitation to appear on a nationally aired television program? That is a question that clients of Red Banyan Group often face. The answer is: it depends.

As the Senior Vice President of Communications at PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) found out, sometimes the right move would be to politely decline.

While PETA’s modus operandi has for years been conducting shocking PR stunts and creating controversial ads (is it really appropriate to compare Holocaust concentration camp victims to chickens in coops?), they should have run the other way when The Daily Show came calling.

Check out this segment, which discusses PETA’s recent lawsuit claiming that whales should be freed from captivity under the Constitution’s 13th Amendment (as were African slaves in the 1800s).

Draw your own conclusions, but in the opinion of Red Banyan Group, PETA should have taken a pass and the executive who gave the green light to grant this interview should be in the doghouse…